Lockport Gallery Opens With Local Flavor

When the time came for the Illinois State Museum to pick an artist for the opening exhibition of its Lockport Gallery, the choice was obvious.

``Edward F. Worst was not just a local hero,`` said curator Lynda Martin, ``He was known all over the country as well.``

Sometime between 1910 and 1914, Worst, a Lockport native, established the Lockport Home Industries--later renamed the Lockport Cottage Industries--and taught Swedish women to use their weaving skills to earn money for their families.

``They made whatever they could sell,`` Martin said.

Their works, which include table runners, napkins, purses and shawls, are on display at the gallery, 200 W. 8th St., Lockport.

A public opening celebration for the Lockport Gallery from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday will offer exhibitions, publications and information about the fine, decorative, industrial and ethnographic arts of Lockport and surrounding areas.

The first part of the Worst exhibition will run through Aug. 2. The second, which will feature more textiles, will be on display from Aug. 9 to Nov. 8. The gallery is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Before Worst organized the weavers, he attended the Lowell Textile School in Lowell, Mass., and the Bronson Textile School in Sweden.

He also studied weaving at the University of Naas in Sweden. He died in 1946.

Worst led the Cottage Industries until it folded during the Great Depression.

Worst`s son and and his wife, William and Dorothy Worst of Lockport, and the Chicago Historical Society have lent the textiles, as well as various types of equipment used by the weavers, to the exhibition.

Among other things, the exhibition features a spinning wheel made in Sweden in the 1840s, Worst`s favorite chair from 1915 and several of his books about weaving.